Both natural and artificial siding have been added to the exterior surfaces of buildings for many years, either as an original exterior for the building or on top of an existing exterior. One siding panel is attached to the exterior of the building, and another similarly-shaped panel is attached adjacent to the earlier panel. This process continues until the entire exterior of the building is covered by the attached siding panels. Adding siding panels on top of an existing exterior is an attractive and cost-effective alternative to repairing or replacing the existing exterior of the building. Changing the siding may also have the desirable effect of changing the exterior appearance and character of the building.
The typical forms of natural siding panels are flat wooden boards or strips of tree trunks which exhibit the exterior curvature of construction logs. The typical forms of artificial siding panels are metal or vinyl panels which have been formed into the shape of natural siding panels. Metal siding panels are usually made from aluminum or steel. Metal siding panels are painted and/or embossed to more closely simulate the appearance of natural siding. Vinyl panels are usually painted or formed from colored synthetic plastic material. The advantage of artificial siding is that it is usually more maintenance-free than natural siding. Natural siding requires continual painting, conditioning and other types of care. In addition, artificial siding is usually less expensive than natural siding.
It is possible to form metal siding panels into a variety of geometric configurations which simulate natural siding panels. For example, metal panels have been formed into shiplap, board and batten, reverse board and batten, clapboard, colonial, vertical and horizontal double four, vertical and horizontal double five, and colonial Dutch configurations. A continuous siding forming machine is used to make these different metal siding panel configurations. A strip of flat sheet metal is moved through roller dies of the siding forming machine, and the roller dies sequentially shape and form the metal strip into the desired siding panel configuration.
Another configuration of metal siding is simulated log siding. Attaching simulated log siding panels to the exterior of a building converts the appearance of the building from a more conventional structure into the appearance of a log cabin or other log building. Use of simulated log siding has the potential of creating a noticeable change in the exterior appearance and character of a building. However, simulated log siding has only achieved moderate consumer acceptance, principally because the simulation of natural construction logs is not sufficiently realistic. A building having previous forms of simulated log siding is easily recognized as having artificial log siding.
The typical metal simulated log siding exhibits a uniform cylindrical shape which is intended to represent the convex curvature of a construction log. The uniform cylindrical shape is not an accurate or realistic simulation, because natural logs have various anomalies in shape, changes in curvature and other natural variations in appearance, all of which are unlike the smooth cylindrical shape of known previous metal simulated log siding panels. The uniformity and repetition of the smooth cylindrical shapes immediately reveals the artificial nature of previously known simulated log siding.
Attempts to counter the uniformity of smooth cylindrical simulated log siding have included embossing a wood grain-like texture on the exterior of the metal simulated log siding. However, the embossed wood grain-like texture cannot be observed from a distance, and has no effect on diminishing or moderating the continuous and repeated cylindrical monotony of known metal simulated log siding panels.
Other attempts to invoke a more realistic appearance in metal simulated log siding panels include coloring the space between the cylindrical convex portions to replicate the appearance of chinking. Chinking is used between natural construction logs to seal the spaces between the natural logs and shut out the exterior environment. The coloring which represents chinking may be directly adhered to the metal simulated log panel, or a separate chink-colored strip may be added once the metal simulated log siding panels have been installed on the building. While the attempt to replicate the appearance of chinking contributes a modest enhancement toward a more realistic appearance, the cylindrical similarity of the simulated log panels and the monotony of the repetitious identical cylindrical shapes creates the predominate overall appearance which is easily recognized as artificial.